Spam Sent After Receipts May Cost Nordstrom
Case could add or decrement email addresses from “personal identification information.”
Nordstrom must face claims that it spams in-store shoppers after telling them it needs their email addresses to send electronic receipts, a federal judge ruled.
Lead plaintiff Robert Capp says he purchased several items at a Nordstrom retail store in Roseville, Calif., with his credit card. After the cashier swiped Capp’s credit card in a portable device, the cashier allegedly asked Capp “to provide his email address for the stated purpose of emailing his receipt.”
Believing this was necessary to finish the transaction and receive a receipt, Capp provided his email address, which the clerk typed into the same portable device used to swipe the credit card, according to Capp’s complaint.
Capp received a receipt for the transaction via email, but also found himself on a Nordstrom mailing list for promotional materials. He claims that Nordstrom began to send him these emails on a nearly daily basis, and that he has also been getting more emails from other retailers. Capp believes that Nordstrom may have shared or sold his email address without his permission.
Capp also alleges that Nordstrom “utilized the email address he provided to reverse append and obtain other additional personal identification information about him.”
Nordstrom had Capp’s complaint removed from Placer County Superior Court to the Eastern District of California. It moved for dismissal, arguing that an email address is not “personal identification information,” as defined by California’s Credit Card Act.
U.S. District Judge Morrison England Jr. found Tuesday that there has been no published case deciding whether an email address constitutes personal identification information.
More: Courthouse News Service